NORTH KOREAN NUKE THREAT . . . IT'S FOR REAL, DEFECTOR SAYS

North Korea has five nuclear warheads and is looking to build missiles to carry them, claims Kang Myong Do, son-in-law of the country's Prime Minister. Kang reportedly defected to South Korea this May, but there are suspicions about the authenticity of his allegations. If true, his statement suggests the situation is worse than most Korea watchers suspected, says TIME's State Department correspondent, J.F.O. McAllister. So far it has been widely believed that the country had enough plutonium to build one or two bombs, but no one in the U.S. intelligence community had an exact number. "The number five is even more than the hawks have suggested, at least publicly," McAllister says.